Life Cycle of a Butterfly – Pre-K-1st | The Becker Green Classroom

Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Tags: Prek, kinder, 1st grade, raining day, inside, butterfly, life cycles, Spring, Fall, Summer

Time : 45 minutes

Author: Mary Catherine, her complete lesson is posted here.

Greeting and Review	Start class in your usual place/way Ask the students, “Who can tell me what a cycle is?” “What is an example of a cycle?” Today we are going to learn/review the life cycle of a butterfly.
Main Lesson	Life Cycle of a butterfly
Activity 1	Read a book about the life cycle of a butterfly as a whole class- example: From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Materials Needed: any book that explains the life cycle of a butterfly
Activity 2	Make life cycle necklace Materials Needed: Hole punch Green construction paper Rotini pasta Shell pasta Bow tie pasta Liquid watercolors or food coloring Hemp string (yarn or any kind of string would work) Paper straw (a plastic straw would work as well)
Cleanup	Put away all supplies and wipe down desks. Ex: ring a bell for cleanup time and ask all the children to help.
Goodbye	1-2 minutes to say goodbye. An option is to pass out butterfly stickers.
External References	Life Cycle of a Butterfly Necklace,
Worksheets	labels

ACTIVITY 1: Read the book as a whole class

Choose a place in the garden or in the classroom to read the book.
Engage students by asking questions as you read.
Limit the book reading to 10-15 minutes in order to complete the necklace.

ACTIVITY 2 : Make life cycle necklace

How to Prep Before the Activity

Cut out four leaf shapes from the green construction paper.
Dye the pasta based on your preferences or you can use markers. (older kids could color their pasta)
Use a hole punch to create a tiny paper circle for the egg.
Cut the straw into three equal pieces.
Print the butterfly life cycle words (unless you and the children are hand writing the words).

Have tables set up with enough materials for each student.

Glue each life cycle label on one green leaf. (you could pre-glue these)
Glue each life cycle piece on the appropriate leaf. The tiny circle hole-punched from white paper is the egg, the rotini is the caterpillar, the shell pasta is the chrysalis, and the bow tie pasta is the butterfly. (you could also pre-glue the words and/or the pasta on the leaves)
Once the previous items are dried, it’s time to assemble the life cycle necklace. (to save on drying you could also use hot glue but parents would have to supervise or do the gluing themselves.
The straws act as spacers for the life cycle pieces so that the life cycle is visible when the necklace is on.

***If using Elmer’s glue, necklaces may not be dry by the end of the lesson so you might have to deliver the necklaces after class. Another option is to pre-glue or use hot glue.

CLEANUP & GOODBYE

Allot 5-8 mins for any cleanup.
Allot 1-2 minutes to say goodbye. An option is to hand out butterfly stickers.

References

Life Cycle of a Butterfly Necklace

Worksheet Links

labels

Life Cycle of a Butterfly – Pre-K-1st